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Before changing business models and making their reputation as a rival to Hammer Studios with a
catalogue of anthology horror films (Dr. Terror's House of Horrors [1965], Torture
Garden [1967], The House That Dripped Blood [1971]), Amicus Films marshaled pop talent
from both sides of the Atlantic for this extremely frivolous but highly entertaining youth
picture. Written and directed by Amicus co-founder Milton Sobotsky, Just for Fun (1963)
offers about eleven minutes of actual plot shoehorned in between musical vignettes from the
disparate likes of The Crickets (four years out from the death of Buddy Holly), Johnny
Tillotson, Freddy Cannon, Bobby Vee, The Tornadoes, and Dusty Springfield (with the
Springfields). Anticipating American International Pictures' Wild in the Streets (1968)
by half a decade, Subotsky's script posits an imperiled England whose rival political factions
conspire to court the youth vote by lowering the voting age. When the same powers that be reduce
the quota for youth-oriented TV fare, a plucky teen (Mark Wynter, later in the Tigon-AIP joint
venture The Haunted House of Horror) decides to run for office.

Episodic in the extreme, Just for Fun plays like an evening of Vaudeville, with the
various singing acts punctuated by broad comic bits that are more miss than hit but retain, at
least at this distance, an undeniable vintage charm. Here, Prime Minister Richard Vernon
(Village of the Damned [1960], The Tomb of Ligea [1964]) and opposition leader
Reginald Beckwith (Burn, Witch, Burn/Night of the Eagle [1962], Night of the Demon
[1957]) find common cause in first exciting voter interest among young adults and then, when
London youths prove a demographic with which to be reckoned, contrive to sabotage TV signals
bearing pop music from country to country (from attempting to cut the trans-Atlantic cable to
shooting down Telstar). Popping up in bit roles are a host of familiar British character actors,
among them John Wood (twenty years pre-WarGames [1983], Edwin Richfield (Quatermass
and the Pit [1967]), Hugh Lloyd (Quadrophenia [1979]), and Dick Emery (Yellow
Submarine [1968]) as well as such then-popular TV personalities as Alan Freeman (who later
turned up in Dr. Terror's House of Horrors) and Top of the Pops host Jimmy Savile.

If Subotsky's comic gags try the patience of viewers not presold on the idiom, sweet relief
comes in the form of the assembled musical talent, whose contributions are well-staged by
director Gordon Flemyng (whose extensive credits in television were broken up over the course of
a long career by the occasional feature, such as Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. [1966]
and The Last Grenade [1970]). Freddy Cannon, The Crickets, The Tornadoes, Bobby Vee (who
sings "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes"), Dusty Springfield and Kenny Lynch (often mistaken for
Muhammad Ali on the cover of Wings' Band on the Run album, where he and Christopher Lee
flank James Coburn) all acquit themselves well in their respective vignettes but it's the
lesser-known acts that really impress, from the Swedish instrumental group The Spotnicks and
Irish singer Clodagh Rogers to British bassist Jet Harris (formerly of The Shadows) and American
singer Ketty Lester; a decade later, Lester contributed a memorable cameo as a Los Angeles
cabbie turned vampire in AIP's Blacula (1972) and her 1962 hit "Love Letters" figured
prominently in David Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986).

Released as a movie-on-demand DVD-R by Sony Pictures (via their Choice Collection subdivision),
Just for Fun looks surpassingly fine, with a clean widescreen black-and-white image
(letterboxed at 1.85:1, 16x9) and extremely satisfying contrasts (particularly of value during
Jet Harris' shadow-cloaked "Man from Nowhere" number and Kenny Lynch's "Monument"). The mono
sound is on par with the picture, resulting in a disarmingly satisfying viewing experience. As
is customary for M.O.D. discs, there are no extras.